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Monday, March 5, 2012

Plowing

Part I, 8 am delivery of 6 tons of compost at less than $15 a ton. It was chilly, in the 30s, but once we started working, I had to take off my winter coat.

6 tons of compost.

Preparing to sell our mower, as we have no tractor for it currently.

After Mike the compost guy left, we began felling red cedars. Why, you might ask? Red cedars are considered a noxious week and make it hard for us to plow up larger plots for our food. When we bought the land over two years ago, the previous owners had cut and burned the largest of the cedars. Our original plan had been to burn our front 20 acres, thus killing all the cedars and any other not-so-pleasant undesirables, but county regulations had other things to say. Since we are within a mile of an air strip, we are not allowed to burn.

Plan B? Axes and bow saws. Next time, I'm using loppers.

Excellent camouflage, no?

Our tree hauler!

Early in our tree piling, before James used it as a resting place,
only to discover I had also been cutting down honey locusts!
(Ouch!)

Unfortunately, I failed to snap a picture of James as he felled cedars with one blow.

The end of the pile, over 100 trees.

Intermission, we attended a nearby auction when we learned that the man with the plow would not arrive until 12:30. It should be noted that we (James in particular) are not to be trusted alone at most auctions. Last time, we bought a tractor that nearly killed James.

This time, being more prudent, we only bought a tool box and a fence post driver. (I really appreciate the Google search engines for things like this. Fence post driver? We called it all kinds of things as I didn't know its proper name!)

Part II, in which I fail to take pictures of the tilling. My dad asked that we plow this year, as our heavy clay needs to be broken up, but he found a man who thought we only needed tilling (again... James still maintains we never needed to plow) since the ground was soft from all the rain.

Wow. The two plots look amazing.

Supervising the plowing and assisting with his own hoe.
Doesn't the drive look lovely with gravel?!

After plowing, we showed the girls how to plant sprouted potatoes left from last year's harvest. It will be their own little garden to care for, and will hopefully keep them busy!

Next week, planting! We have 6 varieties of potatoes, including All-Blue. We're going to make a party of it!

Until next time, remember, this is not paradise. It's Purgatory Ranch.